Cierra la puerta script

This is a story comes from Carol Gaab’s free article, “The First Two Weeks”, which is available on the free downloads page of TPRStorytelling.com if you sign up to be a member (free and definitely worth it!)

It’s seven o’clock. Teakia goes to school. Teakia yells, “Bye, mom!” and opens the door of her house, but she doesn’t close the door. Her mom yells, “Close the door!” but Teakia doesn’t close the door. Teakia never closes the door. Teakia’s mom closes the door.

It’s eight o’clock. Teakia walks to school. Teakia opens the door of the school, but she doesn’t close the door. Mrs. Williams yells, “Close the door!” but Teakia doesn’t close the door. Teakia never closes the door. Mrs. Williams closes the door.

It’s nine fifteen. Teakia goes to Spanish class. Teakia opens the door, but she doesn’t close the door. Mrs. Bex yells, “Close the door!”, but Teakia doesn’t close the door. Teakia never closes the door. Mrs. Bex repeats, “Close the door!” and Teakia shouts, “NEVER!”

Señora Bex calls the police. The police come and arrest Teakia, but the police don’t close the door. Mrs. Bex closes the door.

I was looking at your curriculum map and noticed that the La Universidad link takes you instead to the Cierra la puerta script. I tried it a few times and got the same result for “La universidad” and “languages and occupations vocab”. Not sure if they are supposed to be 2 separate links, but…

I give them to the students in Spanish and have them translate them to English. Usually, I project the sentence and have the kids write the translations down on whiteboards, then they all hold up their answers at the same time and we review the correct answer. I find that it is helpful for students to see the words in context before we begin discussion or storyasking.

The personalized questions in this mini unit include several structures and vocabulary that are not taught in the previous two units of your curriculum map (dice and camina o corre). Do you teach this on the spot or previously at some point? Also, you wrote about “vocabulary” introduction, but only specifically addressed the high frequency structures. Your curriculum map mentions thematic vocabulary. Do you spend separate days introducing these words? How do you approach the additional vocabulary necessary for students to comprehend these stories? Thanks so much for any advice! Your blog is very helpful; I really appreciate that you’ve included and shared so much! Thanks again!

Great questions! So whenever you are doing discussion, you can use structures that you have not studied as long as you provide translations for students; preferably, written translations on the board. This makes the structures “in-bounds”. Then, focus on the target structures when you are circling responses. For example, instead of repeating and circling the whole phrase “John wants to see a puppy dog when he opens his eyes on his birthday”, you would focus on “When John opens his eyes, he wants to see a puppy dog!” and then circle “When John[Mary][Bob] opens[closes] his eyes[hands][door]” instead of the end of the sentence that doesn’t contain the target structures. My curriculum map mentions thematic vocabulary, but that is meant for folks that are tied to a textbook with thematic units and are looking for stories that they can use within those units. I do not teach thematic vocabulary, although certain thematic groups naturally emerge in stories (ex: In “Las chicas no juegan al fútbol americano”, many sports come up even though students are not required to memorize a list of them). Any additional vocabulary is added to the board with translations, and I use Carol Gaab’s strategy of writing vocab in separate areas depending on its importance: Target structures at the top of the board, helpful but not necessary structures at the bottom left, and “challenge” structures at the bottom right. I also keep a running list of cognates in a separate color in its own section of the board, because as Terry Waltz always says, “A cognate isn’t a cognate unless you read it”.